Some Native American students in our area are getting help to move on to college or careers after graduation. The White House announced winners of $5.3 million in federal grants Thursday.

Six tribes in Oklahoma will received some money in the program, including the Cheyenne Arapaho Tribe which will work with El Reno Public Schools to help their students.

“This is one of those areas that we can use all the help we can get. We want our kids to graduate from here with the goal in mind,” El Reno schools superintendent Craig McVay said.

Of the students in the district, 12 percent are Native American, most belonging to the Cheyenne Arapaho tribe, McVay said.

Through the grant, those students will have their progress tracked from the 6th through 9th grades to make sure they’re getting the resources they need to move up after graduation and develop their abilities to do it.

The district will continue to work with them after that to see them through to college, vocational schools or careers.

The grants are part of an initiative by President Obama called “Generation Indigenous,” a project to help American Indian youth.

“These grants are an unprecedented investment in our native youth, and a recognition that tribal communities are best positioned to drive solutions and lead change,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.

Tribes in nine states were awarded money. In Oklahoma the Absentee Shawnee tribe, Otoe-Missouri Tribe and the Creek, Cherokee, and Osage nations were also awarded grant money.

“These grants are an unprecedented investment in Native youth, and a recognition that tribal communities are best positioned to drive solutions and lead change,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “These grants are a down payment on President Obama’s commitment last summer at his historic trip to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota to create new opportunities for American Indian youth to cultivate the next generation of Native leaders.”

TEDNA was one of the grantees, and its abstract is below.

The purpose of the Tribal Education Department National Assembly (TEDNA) Native Youth Community Partners (NYCP) Project (hereafter referred to as the TEDNA NYCP Project) is to develop, test, and demonstrate effectiveness of College and Career Readiness services and supports to improve the educational opportunities and achievement of Indian students in middle and junior high school among four tribes: the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, the Absentee Shawnee Tribe, The Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. The TEDNA NYCP Project is expected to achieve the goal that all participating Grade 6-9 Indian students will improve College and Career Readiness as defined by a successful transition into high school with a GPA greater than 2.0. The project will develop a plan that addresses and supports College and Career Readiness that is locally informed. The TEDNA NYCP Project will use community-based strategies that improve high school success among Indian students by measuring behaviors and psychosocial attributes early in their academic experience that are often overlooked in standardized tests, but critical components of their academic success. Measureable objectives of the project are: (a) to increase the academic Achievement of participating Indian students in Grades 6-9 to be College and Career Ready; (b) to increase informed College and Career Planning with Indian students in Grades 6-9; and (c) to build a College and Career Readiness Culture so that everyone, especially educators, community, students, and families ALL believe that Indian students are capable of success in College and Career.

Isleta Pueblo has taken over the Isleta Elementary School, which since its founding in the 1890s had been under the control of the federal government. The difference in school morale and the children’s behavior, say school officials, is already evident. And it was certainly easy to see the day ICTMN visited—bubbly, friendly, well-behaved children, smiling teachers only too eager to show off their classrooms, and committed staff who took time to share their programs and plans for the future.

The transfer was official July 1. Just a few days before school started in August Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn, Bureau of Indian Education Director Charles Roessel and Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M, joined Isleta Pueblo Gov. E. Paul Torres at the school to celebrate and turn over the keys. This is the first BIE-to-tribal school transition enabled by the Obama Administration’s Blueprint for Reform and the president’s Generation Indigenous (Gen-I) initiative, according to the Department of the Interior.

Isleta Pueblo has taken over the Isleta Elementary School, which since its founding in the 1890s had been under the control of the federal government. The difference in school morale and the children’s behavior, say school officials, is already evident. And it was certainly easy to see the day ICTMN visited—bubbly, friendly, well-behaved children, smiling teachers only too eager to show off their classrooms, and committed staff who took time to share their programs and plans for the future.

The transfer was official July 1. Just a few days before school started in August Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn, Bureau of Indian Education Director Charles Roessel and Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M, joined Isleta Pueblo Gov. E. Paul Torres at the school to celebrate and turn over the keys. This is the first BIE-to-tribal school transition enabled by the Obama Administration’s Blueprint for Reform and the president’s Generation Indigenous (Gen-I) initiative, according to the Department of the Interior.

Torres explained that this is the school his grandmas and grandpas attended. It had once been an important gathering place for the community and provided a sense of continuity.
…

The language program has been active in the school for about two and a half years, with David Lente, Isleta Pueblo, serving as language teacher for grades K-6. “We’re incubating the language program now, working up to integrating language/culture into all instruction at the school,” he said. Among the initiatives underway, explained Lujan, are the production of cartoons in Tiwa for the younger kids and working with a private contractor to develop a Tiwa language program to run on Apple devices, called Tiwa Talk.

…

“Language, culture, and tradition are the focus of our new school,” said Gov. Torres. “We need our future leaders to be strong in language and culture to keep our identity.”

Slowly, high school students Talitha Plain Bull, Juwan Grant and Ethan Young Bird tumbled out of bed and toward the showers.

They had arrived the night before, without much time to settle into this government-run boarding school for Native Americans.

Some of their schoolmates had flown to South Dakota from far-flung places like the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Some had come by car. Most had come on buses that traversed the Great Plains, stopping at reservations and towns along the way.

Phoenix, AZ – This month, the NNABA Foundation, in partnership with The State Bar of South Dakota and the South Dakota Indian Country Bar Association, will launch the Native American Pipeline to Law School in Rapid City, South Dakota. Over the course of three days, President Linda Benally, NNABA, along with Eric C. Schulte, President of The State Bar of South Dakota and Seth Pearman, President of the South Dakota Indian Country Bar Association will visit tribal colleges, tribal high schools, and other universities to encourage interest among students to pursue law careers. They will be joined by other representatives from all three organizations.

In order to raise the visibility of Native American attorneys in the legal profession at large, to effectuate lasting reforms in the legal community, and to help build a pipeline to law school, NNABA conducted the first-of-its-kind study of Native American attorneys. The Pursuit of Inclusion: An In-Depth Exploration of the Experiences and Perspectives of Native American Attorneys in the Legal Professionprovides the first comprehensive picture of the issues confronting Native American attorneys across all settings – including private practice; government practice in state, federal and tribal arenas; the judiciary; corporate legal departments; and academia.

One of the goals of the study is for others to use the findings to develop educational materials and programs to help improve the recruitment, hiring, retention and advancement of Native American attorneys in the legal profession. The State Bar of South Dakota’s Native American Pipeline to Law School outreach does just that. The NNABA Foundation is incredibly proud to partner with these organizations. This partnership has the potential to achieve favorable results in increasing the number of Native American law students.

Tours are being scheduled for September 28 – October 2, 2015. If you are interested in participating in this important effort, please contact NNABA at adminassistant@nativeamericanbar.org for more information.

To learn more about The Pursuit of Inclusion: An In-Depth Exploration of the Experiences and Perspectives of Native American Attorneys in the Legal Profession, click HERE.

Established in 2014, the NNABA Foundation works to foster development of Native American lawyers and addressing social, cultural and legal issues affecting American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians, through the grant of scholarships to law students, the organization of seminars and conferences on topics of interest to the legal profession, and the preparation and distribution of articles and reports on legal issues.